Headlights - Active high beam vs Adaptive Shadow Technology

[Busa1400]

So if I flick it all the way up so that I get the symbol with the A - my lights are dipped and not on high beam.

I thought they could be on high beam all the time ?

[ulstrup]

Allow few seconds to the sensors and then you will see them adjust to the environment.
they are not ALWAYS in high beam whether there is a car or not they ""adjust to the surrounding darkness''.

[Jcbrown]

Originally Posted by Busa1400

So if I flick it all the way up so that I get the symbol with the A - my lights are dipped and not on high beam.

I thought they could be on high beam all the time ?

If you use the rotary switch on the left hand stalk, and get the light with an A symbol on the drivers display, then they are in active mode and will react to the conditions around.

A few seconds after engaging this mode, if it is dark enough (no street lights, etc), the system detects it is safe to engage (depending on other traffic), and I am sure a whole host of things, you should see the Light/A symbol turn blue and the lights begin their show: dipping part of the beam so as not to blind oncoming traffic or vehicles you are following but keeping other parts on main beam; automatically switching between full and dipped beam depending on conditions, ... I am still amazed by the technology and the results

If you want permanent full/high beam then push the left stalk forward. You should now see a blue light symbol in the drivers display, but no A. Lights are now permanently on full/high beam and will not adapt. You must manually dip them so as not to dazzle other drivers

To be honest, I have never used permanent main beam by pushing the stick forward on the S90 - it is either in Auto mode, or active mode

[neon]

These lights are brilliant on the XC90 too.

[Bicax]

Hi guys,

I just picked up my XC90 yesterday (I will post my pics and first impressions when I have a minute) and I also have some doubts regarding this system.

I have the active bending lights option. At night, I put it on "A", and the "shadow dance" only happened once. The rest of the time, the system just switched from main beam to dipped and back.

I was driving in a highway with no lighting. There was a lot of traffic and this may explain why the system was dipping the beam, but I thought that this is exactly the type of situation where the shadow technology would work?

At some point I was even thinking that they might have screwed up at factory and not included the option by mistake, until it started working for 10 seconds.

Not sure if this is normal?

Edit: just to clarify, I double and triple checked that it was in the correct position (letter "A" showing next to the beam), and when there was only one car in front of me it also wouldn't activate.

[steadvex]

Originally Posted by Bicax

Hi guys,

I just picked up my XC90 yesterday (I will post my pics and first impressions when I have a minute) and I also have some doubts regarding this system.

I have the active bending lights option. At night, I put it on "A", and the "shadow dance" only happened once. The rest of the time, the system just switched from main beam to dipped and back.

I was driving in a highway with no lighting. There was a lot of traffic and this may explain why the system was dipping the beam, but I thought that this is exactly the type of situation where the shadow technology would work?

At some point I was even thinking that they might have screwed up at factory and not included the option by mistake, until it started working for 10 seconds.

Not sure if this is normal?

Edit: just to clarify, I double and triple checked that it was in the correct position (letter "A" showing next to the beam), and when there was only one car in front of me it also wouldn't activate.

mine only works in dark area's, streetlamps prevent main beam coming on I find and the shadow thingy, even roads with a few lights seem to prevent it coming on, needs to be no streetlamps at all, maybe its changed on the newer ones? mines a 2014 V60

[Lexman8]

Originally Posted by Bicax

I was driving in a highway with no lighting. There was a lot of traffic and this may explain why the system was dipping the beam, but I thought that this is exactly the type of situation where the shadow technology would work?

When there's a lot of traffic mine tends to stick to dipped beam. I guess this is because otherwise the 'dancing lights' display would get annoying. On the other hand, when there's not much traffic on, say, a single carriageway road I can see it moving the shadow across and/or switching off (I assume) individual LEDs as a car come towards me. When working like this it's very impressive.

[Bicax]

Ok, understood, thanks.

It also didn’t work when there was only one car in front of me, but now I’m thinking that maybe since there are so many reflections from highway road signs the system interprets it as direct light sources.

To be fair, I didn’t really feel the need for more light, vision was already excellent with the dipped beam alone. I was just looking forward to seeing more of it.

[Jcbrown]

For those who have not seen the active LEDs in action, or are not sure if theirs are working, I took this video the other day: https://youtu.be/UFn2azPZZlQ

Not brilliant, but gives a reasonable example of what they look like in action. Shows the bending and active main beam and selective main/dipped lights I think. Ok example of the shadow feature following a car, but have seen better (will try again sometime)

Taken on phone stuck behind sun visor (so phone's screen doesn't distract) on suction cup holder (you can see marks of previous attempts ) so a bit wobbly.

In "the flesh" I think they do an amazing job

[NewV90Owner]

I use them all the time and find them excellent.

They do dip as soon as I enter built up areas.

When following other cars they illuminate both sides of the road and keep the lights just below the rear window on other cars. On undulating roads they are particularly impressive. The amount of swing left and right on steering is speed sensitive so you may not notice it much at high speed.

A car overtook me one night and I left the lights on and you could see the car pass me and the system kept the lights off the car perfectly.

in the settings you can tune the speed of response. It may be that that needs changing. Mine is set to medium.